<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been wanting to write about this for a number of years and it\u2019s now time since I read last month about yet another local big cat sighting. This one\u2019s apparently been spotted sniffing around a Somerset pig farm but he (or she) is certainly not alone. Other panther-like creatures are regularly sighted in Devon, Kent, Sussex, Scotland, Ireland and Wales but the majority appear to roam around parts of Dorset. In fact, West Dorset is now known as \u2018Kitty Kounty\u2019 by feline spotting fans. There\u2019s even a website at www.dorsetbigcats.org. (True \u2013 type it in and check it out). If it was only the one animal at large, then it would have to run impossibly fast round the UK to be seen everywhere, so I assume we\u2019ve got quite a few panther-like beasties prowling about our woods and fields. This makes sense as they don\u2019t all appear to be the same type of animal anyway. Descriptions vary from \u2018sleek\u2019, \u2018fast moving\u2019 or even \u2018fat\u2019 (which would seem contradictory) to \u2018black\u2019, \u2018dark brown\u2019 or rather surprisingly \u2018blueish-grey\u2019 (the latter is obviously not a cat but an escaped pet rabbit or short legged alpaca). They also vary widely in size: \u2018\u2026as big as a small car\u2026\u2019 or \u2018\u2026as large as a labrador\u2019. That means it probably is a black Labrador, but if anyone\u2019s seen a small grey Renault answering to the name of \u2018Tiddles\u2019, please give it a wide berth.<\/p>\n
Contrary to what you may think, I really would like to believe in local Wild Cats. It\u2019s a feel-good escape movie kind of thing like \u2018Chicken Run\u2019 or \u2018King Kong\u2019 \u2013 you really want their freedom bid to succeed even if the story has a sad ending… \u201cGo, Tiger, Go!\u201d<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s entirely possible that several lions or pumas (bought by a mad selfish owner or perhaps by Michael Jackson\u2019s make-up artist) might have escaped from their squalid private zoos and now live in relative peace somewhere on Mutter\u2019s Moor near Sidmouth or along the valley of the River Axe. I want to believe it – it\u2019s like the Loch Ness Monster \u2013 a romantic yarn and good for tourism: \u201cCome to the Jurassic Coast: Home to T.Rex, the Tiger and the Lynx!\u201d We should all encourage greater diversity of fauna in our countryside. It might also help solve the over population of foxes problem.<\/p>\n
OK, so there may be the odd downside\u2026 When they get peckish, they come out at dead of night to gobble a few sheep near Winterbourne Abbas. Sometimes they might even emerge from behind parked cars and growl at shoppers outside Waitrose, but personally I think that\u2019s rather exotically thrilling and certainly makes weekday evenings in Crewkerne much more exciting than normal. You might also spot them as they leap over your garden wall and terrify your children but it\u2019s not their fault if they\u2019re cold and hungry. A tasty human child is probably a huge temptation to a famished panther, so just be firm and say \u2018NO\u2019 and I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll understand and back off. Remember, they\u2019re probably lonely and a little upset. So would you be, if you were imported to a freezing and damp Britain from sunny Africa or America. So, be reasonable and please leave your outside patio heaters turned on at night to help keep them warm over winter. Either that or leave some of your old woolly jumpers out for them to try on. Adopt a Puma. Give a Jaguar a Break! But not, of course, if they stray into our garden and snatch a couple of our chickens.<\/p>\n
So, if I really want to believe in the existence of West Country Wild Cats, why am I making fun of it all here? Because I have not as yet seen even one single convincing photograph. It\u2019s surely not too much to ask nowadays for clear photographic proof given the fact that virtually everyone in 2010 carries a mobile phone or digital camera. Yes, I\u2019ve seen lots of blurred shapes taken at half a mile distance but they might be anything – a poodle, a tabby cat, a wolf or a rat or a bunch of leaves. In that sense, it really is like the Loch Ness Monster. We might all secretly wish to believe in it, but nobody in all these years has ever produced a photo or a video that makes people sit up with a sudden intake of breath and exclaim \u201cWow \u2013 that\u2019s a strange beast, that is!\u201d<\/p>\n
So please can someone sit up a tree all night with a decent camera? For added feline attraction, you could hang a dead goat from a branch as bait. Or perhaps we can persuade David Attenborough to squat in a thicket near Broadwindsor with his camera crew for a fortnight. I could supply them with a thermos of coffee if that would help. It\u2019s the same as crop circles, UFOs, Big Foot or the Yeti. We may want to believe but\u2026<\/p>\n
There is one good thing about being anonymous however. The best hope for any big cats living locally is to remain unknown and unproven. Because, if anyone actually proved the existence of a real leopard living in a garden shed near Chard, it\u2019d be photographed, autographed, documented, captured, imprisoned, biologically tested and monitored hourly with a radio antenna stuck to its head. Health and Safety signs would be erected (\u2018Warning: Baby Leopards Scratching\u2019) and local residents vaccinated against possible Leopard Flu. Armed police would erect barbed wire fencing and all badgers and hedgehogs within 800 metres would be culled.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s much better if we never find out\u2026 \u201cHide, Tiger, Hide!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve been wanting to write about this for a number of years and it\u2019s now time since I read last month about yet another local big cat sighting. This one\u2019s apparently been spotted sniffing around a Somerset pig farm but he (or she) is certainly not alone. Other panther-like creatures are regularly sighted in Devon, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-laterally-speaking","tag-humphrey-walwyn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}